"He was one I’ve always had a good relationship with, even when he was a major and I was on the City Council,” Mitchell said. "He was one of those rare commissioners that wasn’t political.” Mitchell said that was one reason for the commissioner’s long tenure in that office.

"He was a straight shooter,” Mitchell said. "Sometimes he ruffled feathers by calling perpetrators ‘knuckleheads’ or something like that, but he was speaking from the heart.”